Ya, okay, so it was a really bad riff on the famous Jack Nicholson line from A Few Good Men but I just couldn’t resist because .. well .. that’s just the way I swing here – I believe in critical thought especially when it comes to things like Social Media.

Of course this isn’t a really popular tact to take with the hottest buzzword to hit the Web in a long time. So you won’t really read or hear a whole heck of a lot of people looking at this new market medium cloaking itself as some new age digital group hug with anything close to a critical eye.

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As is the habit when Tim O’Reilly pontificates the pundits and guru’s all get one great big enormous woodie and then proceed to fall all over themselves either massaging his words or adding their own dribble onto his latest missive. In this case the starting point for what is sure to be the <puke> next hot topic </puke> to be made into PowerPoint slideshows or start yet another slew of over-priced conferences whose only purpose will be to dissect and market the great words of Mr. Tim was his post about the Internet being the new Operating System.

True to form and well within the First 24 Hour Ruling* we started getting what is bound to be the first of many posts that A) clap themselves on the back for being so prescient and B) use it to justify their own opinions about how they see the Internet. The one that caught my eye this morning as I was trying to work my way through my first pot of coffee was one by Tac Anderson titled If The Internet Is The New Operating System, Social Media is the New Internet (gee .. see how clever he was there – great SEO – as to be expected I guess).

Well before we even delve into the ridiculousness of that suggestion let’s clear up a misconception (for about the 100th time).

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Amber Naslund had a great post yesterday where she finally got a little bit cranky (and did a good job of it to) and tore into some of the more irritating buzzwords and phrases that float through social media marketing like some bad weed.

Here is her list with some additional thoughts of my own added to the mix (but don’t let this stop you from reading her post – you should go read it).

Getting More Followers and Fans

Amber takes a little higher view on this whereas I’ll just go for the throat.

Let’s get this straight right off the bat. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have because in the end they don’t mean squat. Really, just because you have thousands, or tens of thousands, of followers they don’t make you any more popular or influential. Anyone who tries to tell you that they will is either some Social Media maven or just a gullible soul who has fallen for the party line.

You want to be popular or influential then let your actions and your knowledge speak for you not some phony count of people who – chances are -have never read a single thing you’ve written or know of anything you have contributed.

Misdefined ROI

Amber makes a couple of good points regarding this but I would go one step further and suggest that while it is possible that ROI has a place in social media marketing it doesn’t in the social web. Now if you don’t know the difference between the two then maybe you should head over to Mashable or some other puff ridden blog.

Now before you start wanting to gouge out your brain let’s realize that this is the very argument that Jarvis used in a recent TEDxNYed. Yes folks he put forth that – especially in relation to education – that this whole idea of lectures and us being consumers of those one-to-many lessons in learning is outmoded and dumb (or as he called it bullshit) and that we all needed to become collaborators.

But the real yuk-yuk fest starts when he starts going off about how the concept of the audience is dead and the sooner media realized this and that all media is based on the idea of communities the quicker these dying media companies might be able to resurrect themselves.